Rabbi Benjamin Schultz, Crusader Against Communist Infiltration

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Rabbi Benjamin Schultz, the executive director of the American Jewish League Against. Communism from 1948 until its demise in 1960, died Saturday of a stroke at his home in Clarksdale, Miss.

He was 72 years old and, since 1962, was the spiritual leader of Teinple Beth Israel in Clarksdale. For two years, beginning in 1960, ‘he had held the pulpit of a temple in Brunswick, Miss.

But it was the controversy that followed his 12‐year ministry as rabbi of Temple Emanu ‐ El in Yonkers that brought him to public notice. Outspokenly critical of Soviet leaders and their “fellow travelers” in the United States, he fought those who, he said, tried to identify Jewishness with Communism.

His departure frpm Temple Emanu‐El in November 1947 followed a resolution by the New York Board of Rabbis condemning him for three articles he had written for The New York World‐Telegram on alleged communist infiltration into religious groups.

He was accused of having used “the smear technique of the scandalmonger, a technique entirely inappropriate for a rabbi, an endeavor to bring into question the loyalty and Americanism of religious teachers whose record for sincerity and patriotism is unimpeachable.”

Rabbi Schultz called on the National Conference of Christians and Jews to investigate supporters of Communism in churches and sought to “root the Communists and fellow‐travelers out of government, education, churches and synagogues.”

He also called for an examination of school textbooks and in 1949 told the House Committee on Un‐American Activities that there was a Communist conspiracy to inflame religious and racial minorities against this country.

In August 1950 he formed a special committee concerned with the broadcasting business, where a “blacklist” of radio and TV actors, writers, directors and other personnel appeared in a booklet called “Red Channels.”

After Senator Joseph R. McCarthy's censure by the United States Senate for his tactics in investigating alleged Com1 munist infiltration throughout the counthe league's supporters dwindled.

In Clarksdale, Rabbi. Schultz remained a critic of Communism, but he had lost his national forum.

He became a district governor in 1976 of Rotary International and was president of the Coahoma Ministerial Association.

Rabbi Schultz was born in New York and graduated from the University of I Rochester in 1929. He received a master's degree from the Jewish Institute of Reli3 gion in 1931 and served briefly as an assistant rabbi in Brooklyn.

Surviving are his wife, the former Charlotte Elkind of Yonkers; three brothers, Clement, Morris and Robert, and two sisters, Mrs. George Gottesman and Mrs. Louis Mahr.

A funeral service was held yesterday at Beth Israel cemetery in Clarksdale.

A version of this archives appears in print on April 25, 1978, on Page 40 of the New York edition with the headline: Rabbi Benjamin Schultz, Crusader Against Communist Infiltration. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe